“The Effect God Calls Us To Have In This World”

Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 9:1-41
“The Effect God Calls Us To Have In This World”
Tells the tragedy of a climber who recently became a part of the world’s highest graveyard, Mt Everest
- David Sharp, a teacher from England was almost at the summit, but fatigue and lack of oxygen began to take their toll on his body, leading to his death
- The real tragedy however was this, that some 40 climbers, in their dash to get to the top and get their trophy, passed the ailing climber without stopping to help
- As one coldly remarked, “He was effectively dead, so we carried on.”
- But one put it more correctly: “Me, I think some climbers’ sense of morality is effectively dead.”
It’s one story, but it is all too illustrative of the age in which we live
- That has lost its lines, its compass, its bearings, its ethics: ITS VIRTUES!
But it is hard to expect much more when we refuse to hold to absolute truths
- Which leads to the inevitable embrace of individualism, every man for himself
Illustration - Daughter’s graduation: class resolved to reject those who say there are absolutes
How does God speak to this?
- How did God speak to the darkness of His age?
- John 8:12 tells us that Jesus stood up and declared with stunning force “I AM
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.”
- And demonstrated it by entering into the world of a man who never saw light
- Who knew only darkness
- And gave this man sight
- And in the process confirmed the blindness of most everyone around him
- The neighbours who were not certain if they could really see, recognize who he was
- The parents, who were blind to what this formerly blind son needed them to be in the moment
- And worse of all, the Pharisees, the religious police
- Who supposedly had the light
- But were the blindest of all
- Who could see no further than the fact this happened on the
Sabbath (following on from what Bill spoke of last week)
- Could not see the hand of God in front of their faces
- And in the face of the blind man’s probing threw him out
- But Jesus is famous for tracking down rejected people (verse 35)
- You and I are testimonies of this (we have the good news stories, lives healed, restored forgiven)
- And He entered into a conversation
- “Do you believe?” (verse 35b)
- “Are you willing to put your trust in Me?”
- And the man who now could see, went on to see what most everyone else was blind to
- He saw God present and at work in his life
- He saw the Messiah face to face
- And so He received and worshiped Jesus (verse 38)
- Like lots of people today, he was done with traditional religion
- He was ready for something, someone authentic
- Ready to give his life to someone who sought and embraced him, and surely told him that He loved him
- People don’t bow down unless they know this
Illustration – novelist Donald Miller interviewed Toni Morrison
- Why she became a great writer
- Was it her method, structure, education?
- “I am a great writer because when I was a little girl and walked into a room, my father’s eyes would light up. That’s why. There is no other reason.”
- I think Jesus’ eyes lit up whenever He found the marginalized, when He found this man
- And then Jesus did a most amazing thing
- He ended the conversation with words that seem out of sync
- But then, it is the glory of Christ to be out of sync with the world
- “If He fit nicely, He would be of little use” - Piper (read verse 39)
- It is in these words we see the tough, blunt, fierce form of Jesus’ love
- In these, I hear Jesus telling the blind man why He has come
- He has come for him
- Because of his blindness, He exchanged eternity for time, heaven for a place
- But the softness of these words is matched by piercing words that declare “I have also come to blind”
- Which may offend our sensibilities
- They’re meant to!
- For these are words that correspond to the real world of full and disbelieving hearts
- These are words that reflect who Jesus is
- He is the Light, the Light of the whole world
- And it’s the nature of Light to divide, distinguish
- For when light enters the darkness, it can ATTRACT
- Opens our eyes, reveals what is really right side up and what is upside down
- But on the other hand, light can also REPEL
- Give offense
- For light penetrates and exposes, uncovers darkness, draws evil out of the shadows, exposes the foulness of all alternative kingdoms
- The result:
1) Either we will RUN TO HIM
- We will see our darkness, our desperate need, and cry out for
illumination
2) Or we will RUN AWAY FROM HIM
- We will see our darkness and will do everything to hide it
- In part because men by nature love darkness rather than light
(John 3:19)
- For light exposes what people refuse to see
- That only He can be the God of our lives, not us
- That there are absolute truths
- That there are ethics that transcend what we think they should be
- That God requires nothing less than a radical change
- That all of their righteous deeds amount to filthy rags
- This is why the Pharisees hated Jesus so much
- Like insects on a turned over rock, they were suddenly exposed
- He revealed their rotted goodness, the rags of their self-righteousness
- Their thinness, the religious veneer that covered their corrupted core
- Their hypocrisy, their orthodoxy vacant of orthopraxy
- Their blindness in contrast to their assumed illumination
- As McLaren puts it: “He violated their taboos (healing on the
Sabbath), honored their villains (the tax collectors and whores and sinners), and vilified their honorees (the scribes, the priests of the day).”
- He knew that for evil to do its worst, it must look its best
- So He exposed their treachery
- HE CAME TO MAKE ALL THE DISCTINCTIONS CLEAR
- And so their blood pressure rose, their fists were clenched
- And they rejected Him, like so many today
- Who are so certain they can see on their own
- Too arrogant to admit the depth of their blindness
- And in the process bring judgment upon themselves
- This is what Jesus was referring to in verse 39
- He came for the purpose of judgment
- He came to draw a line, shine the light
- And when men reject Him, they consign themselves to:
a. The judgment that comes from sin
- For when men refuse to let go of their sin,
God gives them over to themselves
- Over to the sins they will not let go of
- And the painful confusions and consequences sin serves up become somber prophecies of a greater judgment to come
b. The judgment that comes from a life of meaningless
- For when men disregard the Light, men settle for the darkness of emptiness and meaninglessness
- When they accept fate and chance rather than God, they settle for all the barrenness that comes with anything that assumes God’s place
- When we settle for a life void of God, and give it to things, to ourselves
- We can’t help but come to the point we ask ourselves whether anything really matters
c. The judgment that comes from an eternity apart from God
- An eternity of spiritual death rather than eternal life
- So what is Jesus saying in this conversation to us?
- To us who live in our own world of darkness?
- Perhaps it is something like this…
- If you are going to be a follower of Mine, faithful to truth, called to
be the light of the world YOU TOO WILL BE A DIVIDER
- You will attract or repel
- To some, they will see the light of our good works and praise God
- To others, the light that enlightens will blind
- As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:16, we are the aroma of Christ
- Meaning for one we will be the fragrance of life
- To another, we will be the smell of death
Point - This is the offensive nature of the gospel
- A genuine encounter with God will never leave a person neutral
- A genuine encounter with us who follow Jesus will force people to make a choice
- I’ve modified this a bit, but a prayer by Piper is so fitting
“Lord, thicken our skin. Not that we be less tender, but that we be less easily offended. Give us a passion for truth that is stronger than our desire to be liked.”
- Help us to be both tough and tender
- Guard us from words of condemnation, but don’t let us become so mushy we can’t speak a firm word in season
- Help us to be the Light of the world
John spoke about the man in this passage who knew all his life only darkness but then met the light of the world and He (Jesus) removes that darkness. He seeks out this marginalized person as He seeks us out and performs a miracle of grace upon him as He does with us.
What was Jesus’ purpose in leaving heaven? Verse 39 has a two-fold answer, to bring “sight” where needed and to bring “blindness” were wanted. The result is we either, run to Him with need and receive, or we run away from Him and reject the light.
A follower of Jesus will be a divider, too. We can’t live our life in shades of gray.